


My Eternal Penance

by sandwastesinthevoidofmychest



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Brief mention of scars, Cecil Has A Third Eye, Cecil is Mostly Human, Episode: e037 The Auction, First Time, M/M, Not Beta Read, Oh god, Omniscient Cecil, Smutty, espectially episode 37, i guess?, kind of spoilery for some episodes, kind of?, these two
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2014-08-25
Packaged: 2018-02-14 17:11:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2200098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandwastesinthevoidofmychest/pseuds/sandwastesinthevoidofmychest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Someone owns me" Cecil says quietly.<br/>Consequences of Night Vale's auction crawl out of the walls and Cecil must fulfil his duties.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Eternal Penance

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first foray into WTNV fic, also first fic with porn, I didn't have a beta so any mistakes or inaccuracies are my own fault. This is the first fic I've completed in months, and it just flowed. I hope you enjoy it!  
> The title comes from 'The Lethal Temptress' by The Mendoza Line, a previous Weather.

The light on the radio tower blinks red in the distance, as though it is a heart beating. In the sparse bushes and behind lampposts the Sheriff's Secret Police are busy with their surveillance duties. They are not exactly hidden, but no one in Night Vale will approach them because they do not want to feel their lungs fill up with spiders along with other various insects that lie dormant within their chests already.

Citizens of Night Vale avoid the unnatural light that exudes from their black and red eyes.

No one breaks curfew.

 

Some people are enthusiastically trying to teach their spiders how to read; others lie still beneath the void and starless sky, unmoving but terrified that recent Internet searches will lead to reeducation. Some sit in a dark corner, mourning the lives of people they didn’t know, but fearful of the fact that someone they have never met before will be assigned with the task of mourning them when they are gone.

 

In a messy apartment above a disorganized lab, sits Night Vale’s favourite scientists and the voice of Night Vale himself. They are curled up on an old, worn couch beside each other. Cecil’s head rests on Carlos’s lap as Carlos threads his fingers through Cecil’s impossibly white hair. They sit in silence, both staring at the static of the TV.

 

“Someone owns me.” Cecil’s voice is quiet and uncertain, a contrast with his radio persona, a contrast in which Carlos is the only one to know about. Carlos’s fingers halt in their movements, but Cecil can still feel their warmth against his scalp. “Why couldn’t it have been you?” It’s meant as a question, but sounds more like a plea.

Carlos stiffens around Cecil, his voice is soft, but he has not moved since Cecil first spoke. “That would be…unhealthy, no one should own another person.”

“They sold me. The Sheriff’s Secret Police sold me to something or someone and I couldn’t see who it was.” Cecil sounded forlorn; he had closed his eyes, except for the purple eye on his forehead that could usually see Night Vale.

 

“At first I thought it was some sick joke and Steve Carlsberg, the idiot freak, had made the purchase. Then maybe Strex.” Cecil sighed deeply, curling into Carlo’s lap more comfortably. “I had considered Kevin.”

Carlos took a deep breath at the mention of Cecil’s double. “It would have made sense, I mean…obliterate the double, I guess.”

Cecil hummed quietly under his breath. “I asked the Erikas to curse whatever entity it might have been.”

Carlos pursed his lips, “The Erikas? You mean the angels?”

“I know, I know, angels don’t technically exist” Cecil waved his hand as he automatically added that part for the benefit of the ears within the walls. “But Old Woman Josie said they needed something to stave off the boredom.”

 

Carlos took hold of Cecil’s hand and held it before his mouth to kiss it softly before intertwining their fingers. “And what happened?”

“They laughed.” Cecil mumbled, “I mean you could hear it all across the sand wastes. Then they flew-you know if they existed-to their new headquarters.”

“Helpful.” Carlos mumbled distractively.

 

The Faceless Old Woman That Secretly Lives In Your House scuttled across the ceiling, listening to Cecil and Carlos’s mumbled words. She soon decided to retreat to the piping and electrical work and plan her next manifesto.

 

“It could be the angels-if they existed. Or maybe the Vague, Yet Menacing Government Agency, I even thought about Station Management but they just growled and slipped my note to them back under the door shredded, so I don’t know.”

Carlos ran his hand over Cecil’s shoulder and rested it at Cecil’s hips. “The important thing is that nothing has happened and that auction was months ago. You’re not going anywhere.”

Cecil moved into a sitting position, legs crossed and his hands reaching out for Carlos. “Beautiful Carlos.” Cecil whispered with a sad note in his voice, caressing Carlos’s soft dark skin. Cecil looked like he wanted to say more, but all three eyes were focussed on Carlos as though he was trying to etch his face into his head. “Perfect Carlos.”

 

Carlos tried to figure out what Cecil looked so sad about, but time was getting away from them. He felt disorientated knowing no clocks worked here, but the for the first time since he and Cecil had been dating, he felt an urgency to be almost impossibly close to Cecil.

 

Cecil let out a laugh when Carlos pushed him down into the cushions of the sofa, straddling him as he began to kiss Cecil’s neck and the sensitive part under his jaw. “We could, you know…I mean if you wanted to?” Carlos whispered into Cecil’s ear. Cecil let out an excited squeak, which made Carlos laugh and press their lips together. Cecil ran his hands down Carlos’s back and deftly untucked Carlos’s shirt and dragged his nails up Carlos’s back. “Let’s…go…to the bedroom.” Carlos managed to say between kisses.

 

In the bedroom, Carlos leaned over Cecil, as he kissed him and then began trailing his hands down Cecil’s white striped shirt, opening the buttons as he went along. As Carlos trailed kisses down Cecil’s chest, running his hands over Cecil’s tattoos, He heard Cecil laugh nervously. They had had some heavy make-out sessions, but they had never gotten this far, though they often slept in the same bed. Carlos couldn’t help but smile when he heard Cecil inhale sharply as Carlos pressed against his trousers. As Carlos began to undo Cecil’s belt, Cecil, with unexpected strength for his sinewy body, managed to pull Carlos back over him by grabbing his tie.

 

“Are you sure you want to do this? I mean we could just…” Carlos was interrupted by an eager kiss from Cecil. Cecil’s third eye was closed tightly as though it desperately did not want to see anything. “It’s…I just haven’t done this in a while.”

Carlos moves one leg in between Cecil’s, which lead to a heady breath from both of them as they realised they were both hard. “You have though, yeah?” Carlos asks both out of curiosity and concern, “Because we can take it slow, I mean it, Cecil.”

Cecil rapidly shakes his head, “I want you Carlos. I know how to…Europe, Svitz, it doesn’t matter; all I want is you” He whispers as his hands nervously undo Carlos’s tie, then following along with the buttons of his shirt, proceeding to throw the scientist’s shirt off the bed.

 

The Almighty Glow Cloud passes over the roof of Carlos’s apartment, illuminating Carlos’s bedroom as though it wants to scold them, after all it was a member of the PTA and it didn’t particularly want to listen to a blow-by-blow account on the radio tomorrow. But it soon disappeared, floating towards Raydon Canyon, knowing that they needed _this_ tonight.

 

Cecil was now leaning over Carlos, his hand in Carlos’s underwear, watching Carlos’s expressions vary with every movement of his hand. They were both hard now. Cecil painfully so.

“I want to be inside you.” Carlos whispers, his breath hot against Cecil’s neck. Cecil hums in agreement, now working on getting both of them out of their underwear. Carlos does not have an accurate grasp of time any more, but he could have sworn that Cecil did that at an inhuman speed. Cecil sucks at his neck, teeth grazing across his shoulders, which would probably lead to bruises tomorrow. Carlos would wear them proudly.

 

“Cecil, wait.” Cecil stops running his hands over Carlos’s ass, and stares at him inquisitively. Carlos rolled onto his side and felt around underneath his bed, before taking out a plain, ordinary box, which he then took lubricant and a condom out of. Cecil stared at him as though he could see pieces of the universe within him. Cecil pushes Carlos down on the bed, kneeling over him, his third eye remains shut and Carlos cannot help but notice the moisture on Cecil’s forehead; he cannot tell if it is sweat or whether the eye is crying.

 

Carlos reaches down between them and takes both their cocks in his hand, rejoicing in the look of pleasure he can see on Cecil’s face, before Cecil hungrily kisses down Carlos’s body. Cecil takes Carlos into his mouth, licking the underside of his cock before beginning to suck slowly. Carlos wants to move along with Cecil, but the warmth in the bottom of his stomach is growing and Carlos has to grab Cecil’s hair and mouths his name. Cecil looks up at Carlos and Carlos mutters the word please and Cecil knows what he has to do.

 

Carlos gestures for Cecil to lie down, and he wastes no time in pouring lubricant around his fingers.  He whispers the word relax as he slips a finger into Cecil, feeling another burst of warmth run through him at Cecil’s reaction of total bliss. Carlos slips in another finger and begins to move slowly and carefully and Cecil begins to move his body with Carlos’s hand until they have a rhythm of whispered names and pleas, it is only then that Carlos pulls his fingers out.

 

Cecil almost tackles Carlos back onto the bed, “Let me.” He whispers. Carlos can’t help but feel a little confused as to whether Cecil sounds upset or if he’s just in the moment. Cecil slides the condom onto Carlos’s cock and then coats it with lube. “Ready?” Cecil whispers, and when Carlos nods once, Cecil lowers himself onto Carlos and stays still for a few seconds. Carlos catches his breath, he’s inside Cecil and he has never felt as good as he does right now. Slowly they begin to move in a steady rhythm. Cecil grabs Carlos’s hands and intertwines their fingers as he whispers words that Carlos has never heard before, but they sound like an ancient language.

 

The Sheriff’s Secret Police hesitantly took the decision to stand down on surveillance of Carlos’s apartment. A set of red eyes says that they should leave; it would all be over tomorrow, there is no mouth. “Since when have we pitied?” a growl came from the gravel mixed with sand, there was nothing there.

“They’re coming for him.” The group were silent as they hovered above the ground and as they decided they would each kill for a slice of invisible pie.

 

Breathless and sticky, Cecil and Carlos lay in each other’s arms. Cecil was running his hand along the scars on Carlos’s chest that he had acquired when trying to investigate the small civilization under lane five in the bowling alley. “I’ll never let them hurt you.” Cecil whispered into Carlos’s neck. “They will never harm you.”

Carlos knitted his eyebrows together, he could hear Cecil’s uneven breath and was almost positive Cecil was crying, but Cecil was holding him in a grasp that meant he couldn’t turn around to see was his hypothesis correct.

 

“I love you, Carlos. I love you.” Cecil’s voice was slightly shaky, and Carlos tried to move but couldn’t. “Cecil, I love you too.” Carlos uttered, slightly concerned now as Cecil pressed kisses into his neck and held him close. He couldn’t help but yawn. It was not long before his breathing had evened out. Cecil gently untangled them from each other. “Ready?” the voice of a familiar woman came out of nowhere. Cecil nodded once. The Faceless Old Woman did not reply, as Cecil dressed himself, feeling hollow and cold. He watched Carlos sleeping for a few minutes.

Cecil wasn’t stupid. While he was quietly making his way out of Carlos’s apartment but he could see the car pulling up in front of the radio station in his now open third eye. He could see the stiletto heel of a leather boot crunch into the sand as a tall figure with a dark purple cape slid out of the car. Then there were others, who seemed to materialise from thin air. Cecil knew them. They knew Cecil. Before making his way to the radio station, he looked back at Carlos’s building; he could have sworn he saw a pair of white eyes staring at him from behind a cactus.

 

The tall figures all named Erika turned towards Cecil, who was standing up straight, trying to exude confidence. “It is time.” One of the angels declared in a deep voice, well they would be angels if angels existed, of course.

Cecil nodded once, “Don’t you dare touch him.”

One of the Erika’s held out a camera and a gun that could also be used as a knife. It was covered in ancient runes.

 

Cecil raised his head to meet eyes with the angels. “It is you or the double. One of you must be destroyed. Time will not be the same again until one of you leaves the land of the living. Only then may you return.” Cecil does not move, “This is your destiny, this is what you were sold for, this is why we bought you. Cecil Gershwin Palmer, may you prove that you are the rightful voice of Night Vale Community Radio. May you return.”  
Cecil does not reply he merely nods, as he is led to the car. He brushes against the figure in the cape, but the face is lost in shadow, he hears the familiar laugh though, and it sends shudders down his spine, as it turns silent within the car, as he realises that the car is being driven by a Man In A Tan Jacket. He does not speak.

 

Carlos wakes to the breeze of an open door. He sits up immediately when he notices Cecil is not beside him. He catches sight of a post it note on the floor. _Listen._ It was in the familiar cursive of The Faceless Old Woman. Carlos checked his phone as he went downstairs to turn on the radio.

 

The sound of stiletto heels echoed through the corridors of Night Vale Radio station, a series of newly initiated interns follow behind the figure wearing the cape. The figure lets out a feminine laugh as it opens the door to the recording booth and slams it shut.

The figure sits and turns on the familiar opening of what has been Cecil’s show. “Love does not mean anything; he will not return.” The voice purrs through the microphone. “ Welcome to Night Vale,” the familiar voice coos as she pulls the hood of the cape away to reveal her scarred face; “This is Lauren Mallard and I’m so overjoyed that I get to host this wonderful show! I have returned from Desert Bluffs, anyone who declares that I ran away screaming will get exterminated. What a joyful day!”

 

Carlos sits motionless at his desk chair. He understands now. He shivers as the realisation kicks in, he feels ill as he listens to the voice that is filled with false joy. He is a scientist. He has contingency plans. Losing Cecil was never a scenario that had crossed his mind. His phone chimes once and he stumbles across the room to look at it.

 

_Cecil Palmer:??:?? Tuesday (possibly)_

_To: Carlos_

_Dearest Carlos, I will return. Promise._


End file.
